I’ve been to London many times but have never really ventured south of the City – well, except one time when I visited Greenwich, but that was on a river trip, not on foot. As a result, while I’ve seen Tower Bridge in person, I’d never gotten close enough to cross it, so this was a first for me.
The bridge is one that always seems smaller to me than the others on the river for some reason, a perception thing. Perhaps it’s because it’s tall and that somehow makes it feel less wide in its span or something? Whatever the case, it doesn’t feel small once you get up close and its height and span become more readily apparent.
Even pushing the film a stop, there was not enough light on the morning I took these photos to get fast shutter speeds, and so some camera movement has crept into some shots. Not something I intended, but they actually have a slightly fuzzy look that kinda works I think.
The previous day, when I had to attend a work meeting and had no time to take pictures, the weather was glorious. The day I had the opportunity to do some photography in London, the weather was not far off the worse it could be. Drab, dull, and grey. My usual luck.
Another photo taken outside The Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. I think this one is definitely my favourite from the roll. The use of a shallow depth of field was deliberate to throw the building out of focus but still keep its presence in the frame.
I had the chance to go out with a camera today (well, I was Christmas shopping, but had the Trip 35 in my pocket). Sadly, the beautiful – if very cold – frosty weather also came to an end today, being replaced bith grey overcast skies and rain. So I took not a single picture. Sigh.
Another working week draws to a close. I’ve managed to complete something I’ve been involved with at work over the past couple of months, which is nice. While there are some bits still to do they won’t be required until after the Christmas break. My usual situation is that I end up working right up to the final hours before my Christmas leave kicks in but this year, hopefully, I might have a slightly more relaxed time next week and maybe get into the Christmas spirit a bit more than I currently am.
Today’s photos are a couple more from my trip to The Hepworth. Some more signs of the veil flare are apparent in the picture of the stairs, but it’s manageable. My lens spanner arrived yesterday evening and while I’ve not attempted the repair to remove the lens haze yet, I was able to confirm that the taking lens seems to come out easily enough, which is a good sign.
I visited The Hepworth back at the start of November to see the Hannah Starkey: In Real Life exhibition that was (and, at the time I write this, still is) present in the gallery. The exhibition was good – Hannah Starkey isn’t a photographer I’ve followed particularly – much of her work takes the form of staged portraits designed to depict candid scenes of women going about their lives – but I always tend to find such exhibitions interesting and inspiring, even if the work is not something that would be my first choice of style. Seeing the huge prints in the gallery environment was a great experience.
I took my Yashicamat 124G with me on the visit in the event I might find some things to photograph while I was there, and the posts for the coming days will feature some of the results. Today’s two pictures were made inside The Hepworth gallery, though not in the confines of the Starkey exhibition.
I’ve noticed over the past year or so that my Yashica tends to flare in certain conditions – a diffuse veil flare that reduces contrast, turning deep blacks to greys. Closer inspection of the taking lens reveals that there is haze present, so I need to try and get that fixed. I’ve looked online and it appears to be a reasonably simple job to remove and clean the taking lens, although not without risk of my cack-handedly breaking the camera in some way. To this end I’ve bought a lens spanner and will attempt to effect a repair this weekend. Wish me luck!
The people protesting the cost of living crisis for the Enough is Enough demonstration marched through the town centre. The march attracted a lot of attention and made quite a lot of noise but was a peaceful event.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford Delta 3200 (shot at 800asa and pulled in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
On Saturday 1 October 2022 a number of demonstrations and marches were held in towns and cities across the UK in protest of the cost of living crisis engulfing the country. This was further driven by the disastrous “mini budget” that had been delivered by the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng which effectively benefited the wealthiest in society.
Such was the impact of this budget – causing grave consternation in financial markets, impacting the value of the Pound and pushing inflation into double-digits, as well as losing support amongst their own government, party, opposition parties, and the general public – that the Chancellor and Prime Minister were both forced to resign, making Liz Truss the shortest serving PM in UK history, lasting just seven weeks in the post.
I thought it would be good to document the local march, so headed into town with my Olympus OM-1N and XA3 cameras in tow. I’ll split the pictures over the next few days. This first set shows people meeting at the starting point for the march.
I loaded a roll of Delta 3200 into the OM-1N, but overexposed it a couple of stops by shooting it at 800asa and then pulled it in development (mostly because I didn’t have any HP5+ to hand, or I would have shot that at 800asa and pushed it a stop instead). I think the Delta looks quite good shot this way, and I’d probably do the same again if I don’t need the extra couple of stops of light.
Olympus OM-1N, Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8 & Ilford Delta 3200 (shot at 800asa and pulled in development). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 8mins @ 20°
My wife put up our Christmas tree and the trimmings on Monday. Normally I would help with this, but my input this year consisted mainly of carrying all the boxes downstairs. This was mostly because I had to travel into my local office on the day for my fourth attempt at getting my laptop upgraded to a new build. It fell through again, so there will now be a FIFTH attempt next Monday. I could provide details of the whole sequence of events, but they’re really not very interesting.
So, back onto the decorations, my main involvement this year will be to put up the exterior lights on the front of the house, which I think I’ll do this weekend. It’s not too difficult – we have a small first storey roof that runs across the front of the house, so it’s just a matter of using the step-ladder to attach some clips to the guttering and then attach the lights. Probably about a half-hour’s work. We shall see…
The photo today is of the big Christmas tree in Sheffield town centre outside the town hall. It doesn’t seem as tall as the ones I remember from my childhood, although whether this is just one of those misrememberings that you get when recollecting childhood memories, I don’t know.
This sculpture stands beside the City Hall in Sheffield City Centre. It’s named Women of Steel and commemorates the women who took up roles in the city’s steel works during the first and second world wars. I’ve photographed the statues on a number of occasions and they’ve featured in the blog at least once before (here).
My OCD brain at first showed alarm at the fact that I’ve both chopped off a bit of the closest woman’s arm, and also not gotten her in focus (I was shooting at quite a wide aperture), but my rational brain overrode the concerns because, frankly, it looks just fine.
Steel City Snapper photography 